Factors affecting the Formation and Stabilization of High-Fat Foams

Abstract

The properties of high fat foam are influenced by a number of factors. When the same milk is put through different separators, the stability of the resulting whipped creams can be very different. Cream produced by one separator was found to have acceptable whipping properties, but with cream from the other, the foam collapsed and the fat globules showed extensive clustering, clumping, and coalescence. This chapter examines whipped cream, which appears to have been severely damaged during separation and shows the effects of this damage on the whipped cream properties. It concludes that whipping cream, which contains large fat aggregates, resulting from disruption to the fat phase during separation, has poor whipping properties. Adsorbed at the air bubble surface is a large number of large, needle-like fat crystals. What has still to be confirmed is whether these crystals are directly responsible for the reduced foam formation in these creams.